If you have been investing heavily in stocks over the last 7+ years, you have probably been getting jiggy with it. If one were to try to describe the stock market during this period, they probably would say it has been one big street party in a neighbourhood that was ravaged by the financial market meltdown in 2008. Let's build on this narrative.

The financial services industry does a pretty good job of convincing us to open up RRSP accounts and contribute to them. Unfortunately the most critical part, making the ongoing investment decisions to grow our RRSP containers lacks the meaningful followup. A call to all investors to stop parking your money and start investing!

This emphasis on beating the market has become entrenched especially within the financial services industry. For people managing other people’s money in products like mutual funds, pension funds and other types of managed portfolios, your investment pedigree and more importantly, your performance bonus is defined not only by if you have earned returns in excess of the market returns but also by how much, or the “alpha”. This pressure to beat the market has now trickled down to the masses. Investment products of many stripes are being cranked out with a marketing premise that their fund will outperform the market. This is insane and it has to stop.

In this video, we review the process for using our investment coaching services at Sage Investors. Investment coaching involves a three stage process involving identifying your risk tolerance and long term goals followed by a combination of learning modules and one-on-one coaching sessions that are geared toward increasing your financial literacy and to help you make better investment decisions.

Who would have thought that a game I love to play and watch can offer so many nuggets of wisdom that can enable us to become better investors. The secret? Get the ball over the net and don't try to copy or play like the professionals!

There is a wealth of financial information, opinion, and research available online. Unfortunately most of it noise. Investors more than ever need to learn how to filter the noise, especially information that is put out there by individuals/institutions for consumption as their agendas may not be in alignment with yours. In this HSO I provide an example.

Our first HSO (Hot Stock Observation) talks about an article that explores using Dividend ETF's as an investment strategy to protect your portfolio in a bull market that appears to be long in the tooth.